After World War II, American President Lines was on something of a Quixotic mission to rebuild its passenger fleet. Of the seven President Jackson-class ships ordered prior to the war, only two came back to the company. The Korean Conflict took the three V-2000 liners it had hoped to add to its round-the-world service. Then came President Washington, their version of the United States; it never left the drawing board. Panama Lines' Panama became President Hoover on the trans-Pacific run, but was never a good fit with President Cleveland and President Wilson.

By the time she came into APL's hands, President Roosevelt had led several lives. Originally built as the General W. P. Richardson, she served in World War II, after which a brief stint in the Mediterranean for American Export Lines as LaGuardia. Amid several years of lay-up came trooping duties to Korea, and a risky gambit to take on Matson Lines in Hawaii as Leilani for the Hawaiian Steamship Company.